Bhopal, a lesson unlearned

I cannot understand why this tragedy does not have the media coverage it deserves and why it does not have the same iconic status as the holocaust.

The more I discover about this story the more ashamed and appalled I am. I weep as I write this.

Think of the most cruel and diabolical fairy story you have ever heard, then imagine your disbelief on being told that the story is in fact true. Such gross acts of irresponsible wickedness, beggar the imagination. No greater monster has humanity produced than the real one spawned by naked, corporate greed.

Subsequent to the disaster, every action taken by Union Carbide, the owners of the plant, horribly caricatured the evil, primitive, reptilian impulses of a fairy tale ogre. To this day, a court case rumbles on, still trying to uphold the basic human aspiration of justice in a thoroughly bad world. In the meantime, thousands of powerless individuals suffer and no justice has been served on the forces of evil that hide behind the specious facade of multinationals.

If ever a lesson needed to be made mandatory in our schools it is this one. The holocaust and Bhopal share the same genesis – unbridled power without consequence.